Is the story of the woman caught in adultery in the oldest manuscripts of the Bible?

Answer 1

The Bible text was the subject of a process of evolution over a period of many centuries, and the story of the woman caught in adultery is an example of this process. It was not originally part of the Gospel of John (7:53-8:11) and is completely absent from the early manuscripts of John in Greek. There are no comments on it by the early Greek church writers on John in its first thousand years.

In a few late copies where it actually appears, it is sometimes comes after 7:36 instead of where we now find it, or at the end of John, or even inserted into Luke (after Luke 21:38).

Answer 2

This passage is in fact omitted by almost all the most ancient manuscripts (it is only in D), and by the oldest versions (Syriac, Coptic and some of the old latin), and is not mentioned by the earliest fathers, with the exception of Papias (early 2nd century) who is said to have commented on it. In this regard it is connected with the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Many later manuscripts mark it in such a way as to show that there was doubt about its position. Of the manuscripts that do contain it some place it here in John's Gospel, others after Luke 21.38, one places it after John 7.36, and another after John 21.24. It was well known among the early fathers in the 4th century AD.

It would seem probable therefore that it was not part of John's original Gospel, although some have argued that it was deliberately taken out of the original Gospel in days when asceticism was seen as important because of its content. By its very nature such an argument cannot be disproved, although there are aspects in the account itself which militate against Johannine authorship. That being said its very content, and the constancy with which it was later accepted, suggest that it is a piece of authentic tradition, which was finally given a place in Scripture, although its text has not been preserved with quite such purity as the remainder of John's Gospel. If you trust the bible as "God breathed", it is to be understood that, through God's sovereignty, He desired that this message be given to us and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (2Tim3:16)